Grand Opening Features the Latest Technology from Sony, Wisdom Audio and more.
By Maureen Jenson
Embracing the terminology, “Go Big or Go Home”, the new CinemaTech Experience Center in Dania, Florida, is a feast for the senses.
It’s a space that dealers, designers and clients must experience first hand, being quickly seduced by the luxury and overwhelming presence of superior home theater entertainment in a beautifully designed space. Only an in-person demonstration of this caliber can deliver such sensory overload.
The piece de resistance of the CinemaTech Experience Center is the Sony 193-inch Crystal LED theater wall great room with Wisdom Sage Cinema Series speakers, and designer grade CinemaTech seating. This space can only leave a custom integrator’s clients wanting more. I cannot imagine anyone, that can afford such a system, not wanting to replicate this in their own home.
The remainder of the Experience Center consists of a well thought out lobby reception, designer conference room, a world class dedicated theater, kitchen and bar area. Other key companies that are making the CinemaTech Experience Center a success are DMF Lighting, Screen Innovations, Stealth Acoustics and AMI Sales.
The Design
With studios in Dallas, West Los Angeles, Denver and now Dania, Florida, CinemaTech was founded 25-years ago and over the last two decades has co-created over 2,000 unique and beautiful screening rooms for residential enjoyment.
Said Alexandria Baker, Executive VP CinemaTech, “We use the top 5% of leathers and Italian fabrics available on the market and the finest handcrafted materials that reflect and accentuate room aesthetics. Every seat we build has a 32 point checklist, before approval. Building motorized seating is complicated, the new seats in the dedicated theater feature three motorized functions and USB-C. There are sight lines to calculate, electrical to test, customers specifications and more and it all has to be taken into consideration.
“We have developed a wonderful design team. At our core and are a furniture company and have designed all of the cabinetry and furniture throughout the showroom including the beautiful TV shelves and cabinetry in the lobby, we offer complete bespoke design services, acoustical room treatments and starlight ceilings.” Talk about one stop shopping.
The Gear
Sitting in front of the Sony 193-inch Crystal LED theater wall in the great room is a sensory experience. I have never sat that close to such a massive screen over a prolonged period of time and experienced absolutely no eye-fatigue.
Said Sony’s Kavon Nez, “The typical problem with video walls is you are using a commercial product in a residential space. We have been able to fix many of the problems of traditional video walls.” Including a very seamless removal of the video tiles when cleaning is warranted.
Said Sony’s Jeff Goldstein, “Our goal in participating in the CinemaTech Experience Center was to provide a destination where our dealers could bring clients and show them what’s possible when technology and design are planned in concert. It’s good for the dealers, their clients and our industry.”
The Wisdom Sage Cinema Series Line 2 Source Speakers in the great room are dedicated to hidden installations behind projection screens and fabric walls. Said Joe Walters, Wisdom Sales Manager, “They project sound into the room as an expanding cylinder, which minimizes unwanted reflections from the floor and ceiling. This serves to create a more uniform level of sound throughout the room (people sitting near the speakers are not as overwhelmed by the volume). The sound is focused where the people are, and minimized in other directions, creating an even envelopment while minimizing potential adverse room interactions.”
Joe Walters demonstrated this as he had each of the assembled media members walk down a hallway at the back of the room. There was no degradation of sound throughout the entire roughly 25-foot hallway. Remarkable. The sound was focussed on me during the entire walk.
The Result
Said Sony’s Jeff Goldstein, “The Sony CLED wall has already driven traffic to this new Dania showroom. CinemaTech and Wisdom are great brands to partner with on this endeavor as they fully understand the residential integration market and do not compromise on performance or design.”
Added Wisdom’s Joe Walters, “We really wanted to collaborate on a space where if we were successful, our dealers would be successful. We have achieved that here at the new CinemaTech Experience Center.”
Concluded CinemaTech’s Alexandria Baker, “The trend we are seeing over and over is that the client had ‘just a home theater’. Now they want a truly engineered, beautifully functioning home cinema or multipurpose space. They can come here and imagine these rooms in their own home. That’s what it is all about.”
